Appropriate pronunciation of "Regina"

[Blue Ghost]

My friends and I always pronounced Regina, "Reh-gee-nah". Then ten plus years later I'm watching Seinfeld, and there's allusions that Regina is pronounced "Rah-gine-ah".

Well, I saw couple of films recently, and they both had my gaming groups pronunciation. Good to know we were right all along.

 

[rancke]

My friends and I always pronounced Regina, "Reh-gee-nah". Then ten plus years later I'm watching Seinfeld, and there's allusions that Regina is pronounced "Rah-gine-ah".

Well, I saw couple of films recently, and they both had my gaming groups pronunciation. Good to know we were right all along.

If you're talking about how to pronounce Regina, Saskatchewan[*], you should be posting in Random Static. If you're talking about how to pronounce Regina, Spinward Marches 1910, Seinfeld and assorted 20th Century films are not evidence at all.

AFAIK there is no canonical pronounciation. I've always pronounced it "Ree-jai-nah".

[*] /rɨˈdʒaɪnə/ "rej-eye-na", according to Wikipedia. (Are those two transcriptions even the same?!? )​

Hans

 

[far-trader]

If you're talking about how to pronounce Regina, Saskatchewan
[*]...

[*] /rɨˈdʒaɪnə/ "rej-eye-na", according to Wikipedia. (Are those two transcriptions even the same?!? )​

Hans

I suppose I should edit that wiki (I have no idea if those two transcriptions are the same but they don't look it to me) since I've lived in Saskatchewan most of my life (over 40 years) and have NEVER heard a local pronounce it "rej-eye-na". Everyone I've known and heard from here pronounces it closer to the way you always have Hans, "reh-JAIN-ah" (I'm really not sure how to spell out the pronunciation). As in rhymes with vagina and angina. Soft first syllable, not a "ree" though, a softer e sound, not ray either. Emphasis on the middle syllable with the N.

EDIT: this is giving me a headache trying to figure out how to type the pronunciation, I quit If you want to hear how it's pronounced visit the city and ask the locals, same for the Traveller one (in other words, for the Traveller one, what the Ref says)

 

[Blue Ghost]

If you're talking about how to pronounce Regina, Saskatchewan[*], you should be posting in Random Static. If you're talking about how to pronounce Regina, Spinward Marches 1910, Seinfeld and assorted 20th Century films are not evidence at all.

AFAIK there is no canonical pronounciation. I've always pronounced it "Ree-jai-nah".

[*] /rɨˈdʒaɪnə/ "rej-eye-na", according to Wikipedia. (Are those two transcriptions even the same?!? )​

Hans

Regina Subsector ... the Spinward Marches. Pronunciation thereof. I think it fits here.

 

[Gray Lensman]

Knowing the Sienfeld Show, they intentionally pronounced it to rhyme with vagina.

I have a sister named Regina, and if you ever pronounced it that way in front of her she would knock your block off (big enough with attitude enough to do it too) :rofl: .

 

[inexorabletash]

Knowing the Sienfeld Show, they intentionally pronounced it to rhyme with vagina.

Yes, and this is a source of endless amusement to adolescent Canadian children learning about geography and anatomy.

(I'm from Calgary. You know, near Dismal, Forlorn, Inferno and Hades.)

 

[aramis]

Ruh-jee-nuh is how my players tend to pronounce it for Traveller.

Rej-(eye)-nuh is how the canukistani city is referred to.

Ray-jee-nah is how I prefer to say it.

 

[far-trader]

Mulva?

Rej-(eye)-nuh is how the canukistani city is referred to.

I'm telling you, I live here and don't hear it pronounced that way by anyone

Or I'm misreading the pronunciation guide (entirely possible).

Here, a safe audio link to the way we say it here (though the link I found it through has the same pronunciation guide as above they don't seem the same to me - note the audio middle syllable has both the G and N, as I noted above, while the text above doesn't):

http://inogolo.com/audio/Regina_5250.mp3

EDIT: listening a few more times I can begin to hear the slurring of the G into the first syllable and the N into the last, which would match the text pronunciation guide, but I think it still slides more to the middle syllable and that's the way I hear it here, it's a close thing, soft either way would be pretty acceptable

I sort of think a different pronunciation for the one in Traveller would be fine, it's just not likely to happen out here

 

[Hemdian]

I always figured the pronounciation told you if the speaker is talking about a place or a person. The MP3 that FT links to is for a place (be it in Canada or the Spinward Marches).

 

[Icosahedron]

This topic has come up before, but I can't be arsed trying to find it. I think the upshot was that all the names are ultimately derived from the Latin for queen, which is correctly pronounced ray-geen-ah, with emphasis on the first syllable and a hard g. Those sounds and emphases are alien to English and were therefore replaced soon after the Romans were - the problem is, different people replaced them with different sounds...
Bottom line - does it matter? Agree to disagree - there are more important problems in the world.

 

[ShapeShifter]

That depends. Do you want the proper Classical Latin pronunciation or the abominable, Insular English Latin pronunciation? :rofl: After 25 years of Latin study and professional use, I prefer the former, of course. You could just cut through the red-tape and call it PLANET QUEEN...

Stomp. Stomp. Clap.
Stomp. Stomp. Clap.
"We will, we will.....ROCK YOU!!!"

 

[hdan]

We always pronounced it like the female form of "Reggie" - "Redge EE nuh". The Seinfeld pronunciation was funny, but would seem more appropriate if the word were spelled "Regyna". ("Mulva?")

But what would a bunch of kids from Texas have known about such things? (That's "HYOO ston" BTW, not "House-ton".)

 

[Jame]

We always pronounced it like the female form of "Reggie" - "Redge EE nuh". The Seinfeld pronunciation was funny, but would seem more appropriate if the word were spelled "Regyna". ("Mulva?")

My pronunciation of Regina too.

But what would a bunch of kids from Texas have known about such things? (That's "HYOO ston" BTW, not "House-ton".)

Phew, I got it right!

 

[Carlobrand]

If you are introducing the Queen of England at court in proper Latin, it would be Re-jai-na.

If you are introducing the planet that's supposed to be settled some 2600 years in our future, you can pronounce it, "throat-warbler-mangrove," if you so choose and your players are agreeable. Pronunciation's likely to undergo a bit of evolution over two millenia and a couple or three hundred parsecs, even allowing for the tendency of technology to resist such change. I very much doubt the Third Imperium colonists who settled the world had a Solomani Latin dictionary with them. There might be some reference in an old Sword Worlder database, maybe a running gag among the Sword World university profs specializing in ancient Terran languages, but that wouldn't have had any influence over how the Year-75 Imperials would have chosen to pronounce it.

Goodness knows, an ancient Roman hearing modern Spanish or Italian would probably cringe in horror at what we've done with his language, and WE had Mother Church to remind us of what the correct pronunciation was supposed to be.

 

[Old_Dr_Skull]

Regina aside, here's another one:

How do you pronounce Efate?

As a Latin teacher, I automatically assumed it was "Eff-ah-tay" but then I look at it again and as an English speaker I wonder if it should rather be "F-8"

 

[hdan]

Nice one - I pronounce "Efate" as "EE fate" (like e-mail, only with fate) but I could get behind "F8" also.

I've tried to get opinions on "Ine Givar" ("Ee-neh Gee-var"? "Ein gihVAR"?) but most people don't care. :devil:

 

[aramis]

I pronunce it halfway between ee-fate and eh-fate.

 

[Sturn]

My friends and I always pronounced Regina, "Reh-gee-nah". Then ten plus years later I'm watching Seinfeld, and there's allusions that Regina is pronounced "Rah-gine-ah".

I had a friend in school that pronounced her name with your first example, "Reh-gee-nah". Apparently like most names it can vary. I think in the US at least, the female name is "Reh-gee-nah" and many of us don't experience the other regal pronunciation.

I never heard of the royal use until someone here explained it to me. As a kid I recall thinking Marc Miller must have had a girlfriend named Regina that he named the world after.

 

[77topaz]

Nice one - I pronounce "Efate" as "EE fate" (like e-mail, only with fate) but I could get behind "F8" also.

I've tried to get opinions on "Ine Givar" ("Ee-neh Gee-var"? "Ein gihVAR"?) but most people don't care. :devil:

I roughly agree with those pronunciations.
"Ee-nay Gee-var"